Thosegentlemen, the Cadets, continue innocently to “fail to
understand”. And perhaps the one who most stubbornly of all persists in
“failing to understand” is Mr. Izgoyev. In a tone of injured
innocence he expresses his indignation at “Messrs. the Bolsheviks”
on account of their attacks against the Cadets.

“Theparty of ’people’s freedom’ will never deceive anybody. Nobody has a
right to demand of it more than is indicated in the programme and tactics that
have been approved by party congresses. The programme and tactics contain no
mention of an armed uprising or the overthrow of the monarchy. The Bolsheviks
must reckon with the party that actually exists; and it is somewhat strange that
they should be angry with people who tell them the truth, and who refuse to act
as they dictate.”

But,Mr. Izgoyev, we are “reckoning with the party that actually
exists”. Do you continue to “fail to understand”? But the matter is
so simple: for a bourgeois party, the programme of the “party of
people’s freedom” is not at all bad. Please note that we are saying this
quite seriously.

There(in the programme, Mr. Izgoyev!) one finds, for example, the
demand for free speech, freedom of assembly, and quite a number of good
things. But this has not prevented the Cadets from drafting repressive Bills
against free speech, against freedom of assembly, and against
the other good things.

Well,now about tactics....

True,party congresses have approved of the tactics of “with a shield, or
on a shield”; “death with glory, or death with shame”. But
outside of congresses, in actual politics, the Cadets’ tactics smack of
something entirely different.
You are opposed to an armed uprising? You have a perfect right to be,
gentlemen. But you claim that you are in favour of inflexible, relentless
opposition; you claim that you want power to be transferred to the people
under a monarch who will reign, but not govern. Why then are you
haggling for ministerial portfolios? So you see, Mr. Izgoyev; we
are “reckoning with the party that actually exists”, and
not with one that merely exists on paper. If you were really fighting
on the lines laid down by your programme and tactics, which have been
“approved by party congresses”, we would talk to you in entirely
different terms.

Mr.Izgoyev’s article contains many other curiosities. But speaking generally,
it is the literary property of Comrade A. L—y[1]
and we do not intend to encroach upon it.

Notes

[1]A. L—y is A. V. Lunacharsky, who in Ekho, No. 8,
wrote a reply to the article by Izgoyev directed against Lenin’s article
“Yes
Men of the Cadets”.